Everyman Cinema Front, Hampstead, July 2021 (02)

The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.

Origin

The term ''everyman'' was used as early as an English morality play from the early 1500s: ''The Summoning of'' ''Everyman''. The play's protagonist is an allegorical character representing an ordinary human who knows he is soon to die; according to literature scholar Harry Keyishian he is portrayed as "prosperous, gregarious, ndattractive".Harry Keyishian
"Review of Douglas Morse, dir.,''The Summoning of Everyman'' (Grandfather Films, 2007)"
''Shakespeare Bulletin'' ( Johns Hopkins U P), 2008 Fall;26(3):45–48. Everyman is the only human character of the play; the others are embodied ideas such as Fellowship, who "symbolizes the transience and limitations of human friendship".

The use of the term ''everyman'' to refer generically to a portrayal of an ordinary or typical person dates to the early 20th century. The term ''everywoman'' originates in the same period, having been used by George Bernard Shaw to describe the character Ann Whitefield of his play ''Man and Superman''.

Narrative uses

An everyman is described with the intent that most audience members can readily identify with him. Although the everyman may have difficulties that a hero might, archetypal heroes react rapidly and vigorously by manifest action, whereas an everyman typically avoids engagement or reacts ambivalently, until the situation, growing dire, demands effective reaction to avert disaster. Such a "round", dynamic character—- that is, a character showing complexity and development—- is generally a protagonist.

Or if lacking complexity and development—- thus a "flat", static character—- then the everyman is a secondary character. Especially in literature, there is often a narrator, as the written medium enables extensive explication of, for example, previous events, internal details, and mental content. An everyman narrator may be noticed little, whether by other characters or sometimes even by the reader. A narrating everyman, like Ché in the musical ''Evita'', may even address the audience directly .

List of examples

* The anonymous "Common Man" of Robert Bolt's play '' A Man for All Seasons'' (1960).
* Leopold Bloom of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' (serialized 1918–1920, published in its entirety in 1922)
* The anonymous narrator of Chuck Palahniuk's novel ''Fight Club'' (1996) and its movie adaptation (1999)
* C.C. "Bud" Baxter of Billy Wilder's movie ''The Apartment'' (1960).
* Emmet Brickowski of ''The Lego Movie''
* Charlie Brown of Charles Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts''.
* Ché in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical ''Evita''
* Rhett Butler of Margaret Mitchell's novel ''Gone With the Wind'' (1936) and its movie adaptation (1939)
* Christian of John Bunyan's book ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678).
* Edmond Dantès of Alexandre Dumas' novel ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1844).
* Arthur Dent of Douglas Adams' novel ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' novels
* Jack Driscoll of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's movie ''King Kong'' (1933).
* Doug Funnie in Jim Jinkins' animated series ''Doug''.
* James Gordon in DC Comics.
* Pierre Gringore of Victor Hugo's novel ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1831).
* Gene Hackman of the movie "Hoosiers".
* Jim Halpert in the television series ''The Office''.
* Jonathan Harker of Bram Stoker's novel ''Dracula'' (1897).
* Arthur Hastings of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories.
* George Jetson of the cartoon television series ''The Jetsons''.
* Will Kane of Fred Zinnemann's movie ''High Noon'' (1952).
* Jacob Kowalski of J. K. Rowling's ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' books and movies.
* Stan Marsh of the cartoon television series ''South Park''.
* Joe Martin of the television series ''All My Children''.
* Marty McFly of the movie ''Back to the Future''.
* Walter Mitty of James Thurber's story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939).
* Harry Mason and James Sunderland in ''Silent Hill'' and ''Silent Hill 2'', respectively.
* Ted Mosby of the television series ''How I Met Your Mother''.
* Charlie Nancy in Neil Gaiman's book ''Anansi Boys'' (2005)
* William Priest in John Ford's film ''Judge Priest'' (1934)
* Rocko in the animated series ''Rocko's Modern Life''
* Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's book and film series known as the Ryanverse
* Winston Smith in George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949)
* Egbert Souse in Edward F. Cline's film ''The Bank Dick'' (1940)
* Larry Talbot in the movie '' The Wolf Man'' (1941)
* Dr. Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's ''Sherlock Holmes'' stories
* Philip J. Fry in the animated series ''Futurama''
* Ethan Winters in the video games '' Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'' and ''Resident Evil Village''

See also

* Average Joe – wholly average person
*Commoner – person neither nobility, royalty, nor priesthood
*''Elckerlijc'' - Dutch medieval morality play
*Everyman's right – freedom to roam
*Kafkaesque – everyman being overwhelmed by vast, dehumanizing social labyrinth
*Man on the Bondi tram – hypothetical reasonable Australian
*Person having ordinary skill in the art
* John Q. Public – generic, hypothetical "common man"
*Reasonable person – term helping a jury interpret a law's wording
*Straight man
* T.C. Mits – acronym for "the celebrated man in the street"
*The man on the Clapham omnibus – hypothetical reasonable person
* Zé Povinho – Portuguese everyman

References

{{Stock characters

Stock characters